voi CesThe double reflection; reflection upon that which is present in a ‘now’ and a
reflection upon past experiences and memories, is by no means particular to the field
of musical practice and it should be of interest to the arts-based researcher to explore
the difference between these two modes of reflection, although it may raise some
methodological concerns. as mentioned above, video documentation has proven to
be useful, but even with a video and audio recording of a performance, unwrapping the
different processes and their influence on the events may be difficult.^10
Memoryaccording to henri Bergson, we can look at the present- past axis as an inverted cone
(like an ice- cream cone) where the tip is the present and the other end represents the
oldest unconscious memories. each segment of this cone represents a virtual plane,
a region in the past (Bergson 1991: 170–232). in gilles deleuze’s reading of Bergson
each such region contains the totality of the past in different levels of contraction or
relaxation, and at any time one can make a leap to any segment of the cone, to any past
memory, bringing it back into consciousness (deleuze 1988: 60). The cone is not to be
understood as a storage device in which memories are put, slice by slice in succession,
but rather it is an abstract visualization of the human capacity to place oneself in the
past, while still having access to everything prior to that particular point in time, as
well as everything past it. ‘it is in this sense that one can speak of the regions of Being
itself, the ontological regions of the past “in general”, all coexisting, all repeating one
another’ (deleuze 1988: 61). The cone symbolizes a dynamic process, more dynamic
than the image can represent, because there are several motions in simultaneous
operation. While the base of the cone remains still, the tip of the cone, which at all
times represents the present, moves perpetually along the plane of existence ‘of my
actual representation of the universe’ (Bergson 1991: 152). if this is the horizontal
movement there are corresponding vertical movements where pure memories are
descending down to the tip, to where action takes place, and images from the present
are ascending up into memory (lawlor 2003: 47–8). in other words, one has (at least)
two contrasting movements, one of the cone moving on the plane of existence and one
inside the cone affecting the level of contraction at any virtual plane within the cone.
hence the virtual plane of memory is not a static image of a time in the past, but a
constantly changing one. Following this conceptualization of the relation between the
present and the past, the idea of a temporal schema outside time that Xenakis brought
forth should perhaps be questioned. does not the memory of a musical event vividly
hold on to the temporal aspect of its origin? is it not so that the temporal relations
between the events contained in a memory matters to its representation?
The virtual planes of memory discussed above are likely to be linked to the virtuality
present in all artistic creation. Common to both the virtual planes of memory and to
the virtuality of art practice, with or without technology is that, although they generate
visual elements and images, they do not depend on them. While the mental leaps back
and forth between the present and the past is a natural component to all performing
art practices the jump to a virtual plane of the past in the spur of the moment of the
performance may also create an unsurpassable breach: an ontological difference that,
in the best case, fuels the performance and takes it to new heights, but at its worst,